


Constructive Interference

by unknown_knowns



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game), Life Is Strange: True Colors
Genre: F/F, HYPE, almost certainly not canon, hi, wrote this in like two hours
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 02:34:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30132684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknown_knowns/pseuds/unknown_knowns
Summary: Alex Chen visits an at once strange and familiar town.She's hunting a ghost, you see.Steph Gingrich just might know a thing or two about ghosts ...... and about weird shit that happens on a random Tuesday.
Relationships: Alex Chen/Steph Gingrich
Comments: 7
Kudos: 34





	Constructive Interference

Alex was not looking for deep, unrelenting secrets – not yet, anyway.

That would be later – soon, even – but later, still.

No, right now, Alex mostly walked through the streets a bit wide-eyed, getting used to a town that felt equal parts alien and comforting – like returning home after a long time adventuring, only to find that ‘home’ wasn’t there anymore, instead altered, removed in some way to as to be impossible to once again visit.

She didn’t recognize faces, nor did her eyes intend to linger on the strangers for long, but the buildings felt a little familiar, and there was something in the air that was too squirrely to pin down, but re-assuring none-the-less.

In these early days, Alex was mostly looking for innocent connections, so her itinerary was littered with all sorts of common shop up and down town.

Anywhere that _he_ could have been.

Early stops proved to be inconclusive.

She thought she remembered his culinary interests, but none of the confectioners up and down had much to say – and the story found itself rather repeating as she went down other interests that might have still held true today.

Baseball.

Cooking.

Shopping.

Photography.

She was, apparently, trying to find loose connections to a ghost.

It made sense, on some level – she was a new face, his passing wasn’t quiet, it was rude to talk ill of a dead man – but also odd, on another. Yes, it was rude to talk ill of a dead man, but it wasn’t rude to politely say that he was a quiet Christian who did nothing wrong and seemed to be otherwise nice and normal, even if that person happened to know nothing of him.

By the end of the day, Alex was pretty tired of talking to people.

On a whim, she decided to visit a local record store, only a short ways out of town.

When people were too much – and they often were – music was there, and although money to buy records was hard to come by, it still felt nice to browse and see the inventory.

Now the day was long and the sun was harsher than she would like, so by the time she got to the entrance of the store, she mostly just wanted to get inside and pleasantly browse, unconcerned with the world otherwise around her.

But she did spy a woman smoking a cigarette outside near the entrance, but thought nothing of it, not making eye contact, and certainly not getting close enough to provoke a conversation.

Inside, she was basically alone – she didn’t even see an attendant or a register clerk – so she let out a gentle sigh and unwound a little, letting her eyes wander more and more of her expression to come through.

This place, like most record stores, was absolutely littered with musical items - records, of course, but so much _more_. Chotchkis with signatures of famous musicians – signed albums, promotional displays for singles or upcoming tours – posters of all make and manner describing all sorts of musical debauchery.

And she smiled, a little.

Pressing in a bit more into the store, she casually made her way along the isles upon isles of records, slowly scanning and occasionally stopping to browse.

Each genre, each artist, each album, sometimes even each song, communicated such a certain particular emotion that grouping them in any meaningful way sometimes felt inaccurate and disingenuous – two artists brazenly labeled as ‘indie’ might be one laden with chill 808s, clearly a team of production even, and another with nothing more than a guitar and a woman who wants to be heard.

Still, Alex would be lying if she said she didn’t enjoy certain categories more than others, particularly lately.

In fact, she sighed pretty wistfully as she came up to one of the stands and, taking only a brief look around to ensure she wouldn’t be disturbed, started rifling through one little section to see if she could find anything that meant much to her.

Oh, this one …

Her smile got a bit wider, and she unconsciously lowered her bag to the floor to grab at the vinyl record with both hands, lifting it up.

Perhaps the worst quality of music is that something can speak to you while still haunting you, and this record had the distinction of both qualities to her.

She remembered very fondly of him playing this when –

“Can I help you?”

Jeez!

Alex gasped, realizing that she had totally been zoned out, and hurriedly placed the record down to see the source of the noise.

The source – the woman from earlier, of course – was smiling warmly, but as soon as their eyes met, Alex tried to break contact before … well.

She hoped it didn’t come to that.

The woman raised her hands up by her chest in mock surrender, still smiling.

“Sorry, sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you. Just wanted to see if you were lookin’ for anything in particular.”

If Alex was looking for anything in particular.

She made extremely measured and quick eye contact with the woman so as not to be seen as rude, but kept mostly towards the record she had picked out, not communicating very open body language.

“Thanks, no – it’s – no, it’s not you. I just got lost thinking about something.”

Another brief moment of eye contact and what she hoped was a genuine enough smile,

“I’ve found what I’m looking for, I think.”

The woman didn’t seem too put out, mostly remaining close by with that warm smile still.

“Hmmm. That one?”

She gestured towards the record,

“That’s a good one.”

Alex blinked, but allowed herself to look at the woman – briefly again – with a bit more interest this time.

“Really? You know much about Haux?”

The woman laughed.

“Of course I do. You don’t get to run a record store and not learn all about the records in your store.”

She extended a hand out to shake.

“My name is Steph. Holler if you need anything, yeah? I’ll be by the register otherwise.”

Alex looked at the hand and after a second of consideration, took it, nodding gently towards her new acquaintance.

“Well, thanks … Steph. I’ll keep that in mind.”

Once again they shared a brief smile and – right as Steph turned away to leave, Alex felt it – little tendrils in her mind, mostly unwanted incursions and feelings – she had lingered in contact too long.

Thankfully, she could close her eyes and refocus a little, breathe a little forcefully, and eventually the intrusion left her, this time without taking much of her in return.

That … bile, was always somewhere in her, but ever since she heard about him … it was getting harder to control.

Harder to ignore.

Still, she recomposed and eventually put the record back, since it’s not like she had the money to buy it, and instead went to the register, to talk with Steph.

The rules of the bile were not clear to her, mostly because she had spent her entire life trying to avoid it, but she understood that after it did … that, she could be a little bit more at ease.

For now.

And, despite the agony that came with it, it produced some useful material – Steph had some sort of emotional connection to this song. She could see the colors of the notes as they spoke to her, although interpreting that color was always more of an art than a science.

But it meant, more than anything else she had felt this day, there might be a connection here.

Steph greeted her again with a warm smile when she arrived.

“Hey hey.”

She noticed pretty quick Alex was empty-handed, but it didn’t seem to faze her.

“Change your mind, I guess?”

Alex nodded, looking more directly at Steph this time, and smiling a bit more unguardedly.

“I was just window shopping. But –“

Alex looked around to ensure their privacy, even though they were literally the only two people in the store, before back to Steph,

“- What, um, do you know about that album, anyway?”

Steph hummed a bit, crossing her arms and considering in a more neutral way.

“Well. I know sad girl music when I see it. Let’s say, the genre and I are pretty well acquainted.”

Alex nodded again, trying to interpret the colors that spoke to Steph to see if she could be believed, before returning a comment.

“That’s an interesting way to put it. I think I feel similar.”

Alex had a moment of hesitation before deciding to commit a bit more,

“My brother used to love that album.”

Steph uncrossed her arms, placing her hands on the counter in front of her.

“Yeah? Coming by for memory lane’s sake?”

Alex sighed, finally looking away from Steph to avoid too much contact again, nodding.

“Unfortunately. He passed not too long ago.”

Steph looked at Alex more carefully, of course sympathetic, but …

“Ah, geez. I’m sorry for your loss. I shoulda just let you hang out in peace.”

Alex nodded again.

“Thank you, it’s, nothing, really … I don’t suppose you would have known him, by any chance?”

She briefly looked to the momentarily confused Steph,

“His name was Gabe. Gabe Chen. He used to live around here.”

Steph made a very long, drawn out noise, and clearly thought about how to respond.

“Hmmm. Gabe Chen. Yeah, I think I used to know him. Name rings a bell.”

Alex, for the briefest of moments, felt excitement –

Steph then gasped, looking around in obvious, clear confusion, like something had touched her that shouldn’t have, like a sort of violation had occurred.

Shit.

No – no no no.

Alex was quick to grab her bag, heading towards the door and making sure to break eye contact.

“Um! Sorry! Got to go. I - uh – I’ll visit again soon?”

Alex didn’t know what in the hell was coming out of her mouth – but she did not care.

She just wanted to get out and get away from potentially her bile being discovered.

Outside, she stopped for a few moments, just to recompose herself and once again make sure it stayed within its box but –

“Hey!”

Shit.

Alex took a few steps –

“Alex.”

Alex … stopped, looking around back slowly to a clearly confused-looking Steph.

“You … you know my name?”

Steph had been reaching out a little, but now that Alex stopped, her hands went down and her expression became sober.

“I … do now.”

She looked around once more again to ensure their privacy, then back to Alex.

“Listen.”

Alex was.

Steph took a few moments to recompose and even out her expression, some time Alex appreciated too, before she eventually resumed.

“Whatever is going on with your brother’s death … it’s some weird shit.”

Alex just stared.

Steph took a long pause, casually taking out a cigarette from somewhere previously hidden on her person and lighting it, taking only that moment to steady her nerves.

“But it’s not the first time I’ve dealt with some weird shit.”

Inhale.

Smoke exhale.

“You want to tell me what’s going on, cutie?”

The casual flirt did not even make the top ten list of what the hell was going through Alex’s mind right now.

But at least she found her connection, in perhaps the last place she thought to look.

**Author's Note:**

> hype


End file.
